Swami Ramteerth returned from America. He had been teaching all over Europe and America about the true essence of things, and he had acquired a lot of influence. Millions of people had heard him and worshipped him. He came back to India and spent some days in the Himalayas. His wife went to meet him, and Ramteerth refused to meet with her. He said, “ I will not meet her. “
Sardar Pooran Singh, who was living with him, was very surprised. He said to Ramteerth, “ I have never seen you refuse to meet a woman in Europe and America, thousands of women came and you never refused to meet any of them. Why are you refusing to meet this woman? At some level do you still believe her to be your wife? You left her and went away. You are refusing to meet your own wife.”
Definitely, at some level he still believed her to be his wife – other woman visited him and he never refused to meet them.
As long as you have an attachment to thoughts, you should not be under the illusion that you can drop anything. The real clinging and burden is that of thought. Everything else is on the outside, it does not have a hold on you. It is only thought that has a hold on you. It is the circle of thought, the heavy load of thought through which you feel you know something. It is worth asking yourself, “Is any of it really mine? “
Once there was a famous monk. A young seeker came to visit his commune. For a few days the young seeker listened to what the old monk had to say - and the old monk had very little to say. The young seeker got tired of listening to the same things again and again and he thought, “ I had better leave this commune, it seems there is nothing much to learn here. “
Just then a new monk entered the commune. That night the new monk gave great discourse, it wonderful, very serious, subtle and deep.
The young seeker listened to the talk of the visiting monk, the guest , and said to himself, “ this is what a master should be like, he has such great knowledge, so serious and deep. The old monk in whose commune I am staying knows only a few things, nothing more.” He also thought that the old monk must have felt sad when he listened to the old monk speaking like that . He must have felt insulted, “ The old monk does not know anything. He has wasted his life. “
After completing his talk the monk looked around the assembly proudly to see the impression he made. He also looked at the old monk.
The old monk said, “I have been listening very attentively for the past two hours, but I saw that you did not speak at all. “
The monk said, “ Are you mad? I have been speaking for the last two hours, and every one was silent and you say you listen to me for two hours and I have not said anything?”
The old monk said, “ I have certainly listened very carefully to you but you never said anything. Whatever you said was completely taken from others. You have no thoughts from your own experience. That is why I say you never said anything. Others were speaking through you, but you did not speak. ”
For freedom of thought, for liberation of thought, and for the awakening of intelligence, the first thing, the first awareness that is needed is : “ No thought is mine” Calling a thought mine which is not your own is lying. No thought is yours. You should break the identification with thoughts.
